Enduro Championship finals draw closer
The Bank Windhoek Namibian Enduro Championship is approaching a dramatic final of the season with only two races left to go. Exciting racing will therefore be guaranteed at Farm Döbra, close to Windhoek, this weekend, with round seven of the championship taking place.
The Namibian Enduro Championship regulations provide that riders can cancel one result of the eight events of the championship in the final calculation at the end of the season. Factoring this in, Henner Rusch (KTM), Pascal Henle (KTM) and Kai Hennes (KTM) will battle it out for the championship crown in the motorbikes with more than 250 cc class in the last two events.
Currently the three riders are separated by 20 championship points with Rusch 10 points ahead of Henle, and 20 points ahead of Hennes. After winning the last event in Abbabis, Henle will seek to finish ahead of Rush again to keep his championship ambitions alive.
In the motorbikes up to 200cc class, Ingo Waldschmidt (KTM), Marcel Henle (KTM), Tommy Gous (Yamaha) and Joern Greiter (KTM) are all still in championship contention, separated by 23 championship points. Marcel Henle closed the gap to championship leader Waldschmidt with victory at Abbabis, and will have to keep up the momentum at Otjihase.
In the senior motorbikes class, Frank Ahlreip (KTM) has been building the pressure on championship leader Sven Schneidenberger (KTM) with good results in the last two events. After four victories in a row at the beginning of the season, Schneidenberger suffered an injury at Uis and could not keep up with in-form Ahlreip. The two are now separated by only two championship points, while Werner Wiese (KTM) and Kai Hohmeier (KTM) are equally only separated by two championship points in third and fourth place.
In the clubman’s class, Juergen Gladis (KTM) leads the championship ahead of Gerald Heiser (KTM) by three championship points. Through the season, the two riders have been in extremely close contention and are likely to finish neck-in-neck. The race for third place is wide open, with Michael van der Hoven (KTM) and Heinz Erni (KTM) among the contenders. The Off-road Bikes class is firmly under control by championship leader Kurt Hartung (KTM), followed by Juan van As (KTM) and Lenny Bagwitz (KTM).
Jens Rubow (Yamaha) and J.L. Opperman (Honda) raced for victory in the open quads class until the final lap at Abbabis, where Rubow secured victory. The championship nevertheless remains a close affair, as Rubow and Opperman are only separated by six championship points. Claire Brendel (Honda) is comfortably third in the championship. In the Ladies Quad Class, championship leader, Shannon Rowland (Honda), claimed her third victory of the season at Abbabis and is just one point away to seal the championship.
